Road Trip Critical For Slumping Red Sox

Boston Travels To Texas Today After Getting Swept By Cleveland At Home.

August 24, 1993|By Sean Horgan, Hartford Courant

BOSTON — The Red Sox, struggling to remain in the pennant race in the American League East, open a six-game road trip tonight in Arlington, Texas, mired in their worst stretch of baseball since their June swoon that dropped them 13 games out of first place.

They capped their 3-9 homestand over the weekend by getting swept in four games by the Cleveland Indians for the first time since 1960.

Worse, they gave three of the games away with either bad relief pitching, slipshod baserunning or bad defense.

The Red Sox have not won consecutive games since Aug. 4-5. All of which goes a long way toward explaining why they are in fourth place, six games behind the American League East-leading Blue Jays before Monday night's games.

Their only salvation is that neither the first-place Toronto Blue Jays nor the second-place Yankees have taken charge of the division.

Now, however, they must vault three teams rather than one or two. That makes the task harder, even for the Red Sox, who won 28 of 35 in June and July.

For them to succeed, the Blue Jays, Yankees and Baltimore Orioles - who split their weekend series with their respective opponents - also must falter.

So, the Red Sox (65-58) have arrived at a critical marker in their season, General Manager Lou Gorman said.

''If we can come back from this trip four or five games out, we still have a chance,'' Gorman said.

''This is a big road trip for us, very big,'' Gorman said. ''We can't afford to fall any farther behind. And we always have trouble in those ballparks (Texas and Kansas City).''

The Red Sox are 53-74 in Texas since the Washington Senators moved there in 1972 and 55-87 in Kansas City since the Royals joined the American League in 1969. This year, the Red Sox swept the Royals in the first series of the season, before going 1-2 in Arlington, Texas.

The Red Sox have 39 games remaining - 20 on the road, 19 at Fenway Park, including the past 10. They begin this trip 27-34 on the road, where they have shown a Jekyll-Hyde personality.

''We know what we're capable of doing, home or away,'' first baseman Mo Vaughn said. ''This team is tough enough to like the challenge of winning on the road. We all know what's at stake.''

To try to help their chances, manager Butch Hobson is planning to move Roger Clemens and Frank Viola back a day every time the schedule allows to give them an extra day of rest.